What if Magic Johnson had led the Lakers to the 91 NBA Championship? Let's say, other than winning in 91, not a single thing else changed in his career.

By winning in 91,

-- Magic would have 6 titles, making him the Lord of the Rings (of the modern era)

-- He would have won with and without Kareem

-- He would have beaten Bird 3 out of 5 times and would own a 1-0 edge over MJ before abruptly retiring due to contracting the HIV virus

-- His career would have ended at age 31, allowing people to speculate positively over just how many more he would have won.

-- He would have single-handily killed off MJ's invincibility aura in the Finals. MJ would be the same EXACT player, but we would have seen Magic take an older team (without Kareem) and beat MJ's Bulls before retiring. MJ's Bulls would have gone on to beat the Blazers the next year and win the rest of the 5 titles, but the QUESTIONS that would have come up due to MJ not beating Magic with a competitive team in the prime of his life would have knocked off a significant amount of sheen off his legend, imo

-- During what most people think is MJ's prime (88-93), Magic would have won 2 league MVP's (89, 90). MJ would have won in 91, but Magic would have taken the title that year and possibly the FMVP.

Would any of this alter how you view Magic's career? Would he be the consensus GOAT? Would MJ still be the consensus GOAT? Would Magic be considered the ultimate winner once he showed he could win a title without Kareem or Pat Riley? Does Magic and Bird still share the stage together or does Magic edge out in front? Would Kobe have dreamed of chasing Magic's six instead of Jordan's five?

What does it say that a different bounce here or there has the potential to change so much even though, aside from this one series, everything else stays exactly the same?

Well, we would definitely have a lot fewer "Who's the Greatest Laker ever" threads around here. Plus it would have made the "Top SG" debates even more intense (you know, Fiiiivvvvveeee Riiiiinnnnnnnnnggggss, and all that bullsh!t).

With just one series reversed, Magic moves up the ranks of GOAT listings. Just like that. You couldn't mention MJ without conceding that Magic won more AND beat him in 91, could you? At the very least, he's considered the ultimate winner.

I wonder if today's style of play would be different or more varied if Magic had won more playing his way than MJ did playing his. Lebron would have been embraced a little more easily, for example...

And who knows how that series plays out if Jordan doesn't hit the game-winning buzzer beater at the end of regulation to force OT in game 3. The Bulls would've been down 2-1 with two more games in LA. The Lakers didn't have Worthy or Scott in game 5 either. Their two fill-ins (Tony Smith and Elden Campbell) had good games scoring 33 combined points on 14/18 shooting, but it was a pretty close game that might've gone differently with a healthy Worthy an Scott. In hindsight we just look and say "Oh, well the Bulls won the series in five" when it was actually a little closer than we might realize.

I watched this series several weeks ago and was thinking some of the same things, though. I mean it would've drastically changed the way we do legacy and all-time rankings now had Magic beat Jordan in '91.

With just one series reversed, Magic moves up the ranks of GOAT listings. Just like that. You couldn't mention MJ without conceding that Magic won more AND beat him in 91, could you? At the very least, he's considered the ultimate winner.

I wonder if today's style of play would be different or more varied if Magic had won more playing his way than MJ did playing his. Lebron would have been embraced a little more easily, for example...

Assuming Magic still retired when he did, and Jordan went on to 3-peat in 96-98, I doubt it. MJ would still have the 3-peat bragging rights (just later on in his career), and I also think he would have been the league's biggest draw like he was, as well.

As for Lebron, I think he got embraced just fine, post Jordan. He had his own style and approach to the game, just like Magic and Jordan did before him. Lebron was just the best of both of those worlds combined into one player.

What would the Olympics have been like had Magic won the 91 NBA title? The two alpha dogs were already highly competitive against each other. What if at the end of the day, Magic could do to MJ what MJ used to do to Ewing and Barkley...say, "I got you. You never beat me when we you had the chance. We took the title going through Chicago. You'll never top 6 rings."

What would the Olympics have been like had Magic won the 91 NBA title? The two alpha dogs were already highly competitive against each other. What if at the end of the day, Magic could do to MJ what MJ used to do to Ewing and Barkley...say, "I got you. You never beat me when we you had the chance. We took the title going through Chicago. You'll never top 6 rings."

Something else you haven't mentioned that has to do with Jordan. What if losing in '91 just makes him even hungrier and he doesn't "retire" after '93 and plays straight through '97 or '98?

The Lakers were mild favorites in 1991 so it wouldn't have changed things too much, would have cemented Magic as the all-time greatest Laker, clearly elevate him above Bird and have him in the discussion for GOAT though.

The main thing it would have done was dent Jordan's Finals record (if in this scenario the rest of his career plays out the same). Having said that, Jordan still probably would have got a pass as it was his first NBA Finals, similar to LeBron's failure vs the Spurs.

Something else you haven't mentioned that has to do with Jordan. What if losing in '91 just makes him even hungrier and he doesn't "retire" after '93 and plays straight through '97 or '98?

I think they'd need a dominant post defender to deal with the Shaqs/Hakeems/Malones of the world, regardless

if they pick up Rodman it might help them in 94/95, but I don't think that 91-93 core was going to beat a dominant big (plus, even though he had an amazing Finals against Sir Charles, enough people contend that Jordan was out of his absolute peak by 92, that it's worth mentioning)

I have somewhat wondered the effect of this also. What if the injury/ health tables were turned around? What if the Lakers (i.e. Worthy and later Scott who was horrible the whole time he played) were perfectly healthy, but Pippen had come into the Finals with an ankle injury, then he and Grant would have gotten injured in 4, missing all of game 5? How would the series have been different? Some time ago I was looking at the Lakers starting 5 in game five:

Magic, Green, Perkins, Divac, Teagle...There is very little intimidating about that lineup.